The Last of Evangelion
by Evanin
Summary: The ultimate war against the primordial gods has already begun, but hamartia yet lurks within the copies of the Children, haunting an era for the world once more.
1. Introduction

**The Speech of Remorse**

She was content. You couldn't tell, and she surely wouldn't let you realize it, but she was happy. That is why it's torturing to witness countless stars bursting in showers before your eyes, multiple globes of fire and heat scattering all around her visual gaze, and hearing nothing. There's no air to travel the noise. This was space, twenty thousand miles from Earth, and Aleph was floating among it in waves of shock, debris and brimstone befalling back into the planet behind, and as if the entire universe is seemingly coming to a violent wrathful end, the girl could do nothing but stare, staring at those red yellow lights showering all things, and realizing that the first person she ever attempted to care was right in the middle of it. She closed her eyes, and let gravity drown her. She doesn't know why, but she didn't cry, it felt too painful to cry here, something in her told her she should never shed tears, even if she's technically eleven years old, her body always appeared fourteen or older, to her that fact convinced herself that she had to act as a grown up, a mature and responsible adult. She should keep her composure, damn it, no matter what. And she would not break it for just some _copy_.

The foundations of her beliefs are wavering. She was happy wasn't she? Now she realizes that moments she once experienced those feelings might never come back, she did not even told him that she was content, and glad to have someone by her side, somehow, even though she never hoped to care, that disappointed and terrified her beyond belief. There was just too little time, right? Having saved the human race didn't felt like it mattered anymore. She was done. She did not care, to hell with the Lilin and their planets. There was only one she knew, and he's gone, no amount of infinite accumulated knowledge of mankind will bring that back.

Whiteness is now blasting upon the face of her helmet; she's entering the stratosphere and friction with air molecules are lighting her whole body up, along with side thousands more of battlefield fragments. Is this it? Is she going to die? Of course not, she will live; this intensely durable suit will keep her from roasting alive, decelerating right before hitting the ground and gently landing her on her feet. Mari knows exactly what's happening; she wouldn't let her get killed even if she asked her to. This kind of situation must have been simulated time and time again. Humans can practically escape into space with a single suit if they wanted.

It felt like years, but her body eventually did touch the soil as predicted. She was disappointed. Dying would have been preferred; it would had been acceptable to be remembered a hero rather than dealing with what she is planning to accomplish, for everything she is living for has been triggered by the greatest fireworks display the world has ever seen, perhaps second only to the days of the Genesis, a thousand years ago.

Aleph removed her helmet, swinging out the long elegant red hair out of her head, and turned towards the sky, filled with millions of blazing meteor showers, she whispered Ex's name. The names both of them have learnt from unseen memories, ones that were engraved into them after birth, where they've shared in a blooming friendship, perhaps even more. But he's gone, phase two will be initiated, and childish wishes are no longer tolerable.

"…Shinji." It was here that she surrendered, slowly shed and cried.


	2. Part I: Death

**THE LAST ****OF**** EVANGELION**

* * *

**Part I**

**Death**

3005 A.D.

Three Years Later

Shinji Ikari awoke as if he was in an intricately complex nightmare, where he felt like he was submerged in a pool of infinity, after his eyes burst apart, blurred visions slowly focused, he stared directly at a ceiling he could not recognize, and he made no attempt to; there was nothing familiar he could spot out, from the bed, sheets, to lights, everything was not as he _once_ knew them, an intense sense of déjà vu settled in, and he twitched. Could he have been here before? What can he remember before now? Blank. Nothing. Maybe because he was just _born_.

"Zeta-TwentyFourth has awakened Lady Aleph." A synthetic voice spoke on the other side of the room. Shinji slowly tried to spot it. A few feet away, he immediately recognized someone watching over him, leaning over the wall, arms crossed, a figure with a beautiful long red hair, and a face with an attitude.

"How is his condition?" She said.

"Optimal health madam. No negative signature I can verify."

"That's good... I suppose a good morning is in order." She spoke to the boy. Shinji couldn't do anything but stay still and silent. He was confused, he did not know how to react, he knows this person, but who is she? He scoured through memories. Blank. Nothing. "…What's his hormonal level?" She suddenly says, obviously realizing that Shinji is staring at her.

"79bpm. 11.8% madam."

"So you're not actually ogling at me?" The girl smirked slightly. Shinji swallowed a bit.

"I… Do I know you?" He felt like he did. It was the only thing he could say in his head.

"No… We've never met." The girl spoke sternly.

"We didn't? …Is your name Asuka?" The girl widened her eyes in sheer surprise. This was impossible. She never **met **him. Not even **he** knew it after the waking.

"How would you know that?" Her eyes have immediately turned to a predator, hungry to devour the prey of the unknown.

"I… I don't really know either." Shinji couldn't. He tried to. But there's just nothing. The girl chuckles softly.

"Of course you don't. Mari? Check his memories. Try to see anything." An artificial arm floated over Shinji's face, a small blue dot stared right at his eye for three seconds and turned red.

"The hippocampus is clean madam. Data logs indicate that he has never been actuated; it is not possible for him to develop any memories during stasis."

"I know, I know." Asuka sat her forehead on her palm for a little. "…What else can you tell about me?" Shinji gazed at her again and tried to think. Blank.

"I can't… think of anything. I'm sorry." The girl made an expression as if she expected the answer. "…Am I… A robot here?" Said the boy, the girl chuckles again, almost a laugh this time.

"No. You have no mechanicals in you. You're an _artificial _human, all organic." Too many things are making no sense at all, Shinji felt being at a complete loss. "…Just like me." She added. His glare sharpened on her more, for some reason, he felt sympathy.

"…What's an artificial human?" Asuka turned away for a few seconds, hesitating, but moved back.

"Homo sapiens built from scratch by creating entirely new gene codes... Or a clone."

"Which am I?" Somehow, Shinji already knew the answer.

* * *

Half an hour after lifting himself off the bed, Shinji did felt like it was the first time his body has ever done that. He could barely get a grip of the first few minutes of waking his own self for the very first time, or perhaps for the hundredth time. He was nauseous and highly confused; he positioned both his arms on a pristine sink, and hanged his head up. His fresh mind began to process of what a clone is after examining yourself for five minutes on a mirror.

_He was only a copy. _

"You're being in there for quite a while. Are you sure you're alright?" Says Asuka from outside the door, Shinji finished drying up his face with advanced tools he's having a hard time getting used to.

"…Sorry. I was just… Thinking." Shinji passed out of the bathroom door, clearly not happy with himself.

"So you know what a clone is?" Asks Asuka, she's definitely curious of how much **this** Shinji is able to self-aware as quickly.

"I'm a copy of someone else?" Said the boy, sitting on a breakfast table, Asuka did the same on the opposite side. She nodded.

"Yup." The girl took a bite of quite normal looking enough food.

"…Who was my original self?" She took another bite.

"We know them as the Marduk Selective. There's nothing we were able to learn beyond much more than who they were."

"And who were they?" Shinji decided to pick a bite of bread like balls at the center of the table.

"Children of the Genesis War. All I could find out was that they were soldiers that combated a kin of the Ancestors. One millennium ago." The boy quivered his fingers for a moment. "We don't know how or why these children were picked and we're not sure what exactly happened… Especially how we might have won, that would have been useful." Shinji was chewing slowly, the food tasted strangely pleasant. Too pleasant. His mind did nothing but think, and he did not even know what to think about. It felt all too much, and yet not enough. "You okay?"

"I just… have too many questions right now."

"I bet you do. But I'm not answering all of them; I have things to get done for today and reports to do, so pick the next few of them wisely."

"Were there others of me? More copies I mean." Asuka continued to chew, crossed her arms behind her head and shut her eyes.

"Twenty-four in total. Including you." Right now Shinji felt like he was just hit by a truck, the idea of so many of him around is discouraging beyond belief.

"Will I meet them?" The redhead opened her eyes and picked another food off the table.

"No."

"…No?"

"They're all dead." She decided to chew an apple. "You're the last of its series." Shinji couldn't help but smile a bit, even though it should still feel completely wrong.

"What about you?" The boy decides to pick an apple as well. The girl swallowed.

"I'm the first, born fourteen years ago. And because cloning is outlawed they didn't attempted to make them out of me, the only reason we two exist is because we're at war."

"What war?"

"The Judgment. It's a long history; been going on for centuries since people started colonizing beyond the Sol System, back then we were contained and it never got in or affected us, until three years ago the Ancestors broke through the Kuiper Wall and... Mari can recount about it better than I can." Asuka began to sip her coffee. Or what Shinji thinks it might be.

"I will be happy to share any knowledge I can Zeta-TwentyFourth." Spoke a voice from the side of the wall.

"My name is Shinji." He said smilingly, just barely noticing Asuka staring at him with cold dead blue eyes.

"Zeta is your clone-code, **your** name. It's better to get used to it." She says directly.

"Why? I already have a name." The redhead angrily swiped something under the table, activating some sort of lights that started to clean her side of the table. She stood out from the chair and walked towards a room; she stopped without looking back and icily stated:

"No… You don't."

* * *

Even at the age of twenty-five, Admiral Kaitan is known as the "woman", and she wasn't a woman to want any sort of time wasted, she has been alerted on a signal from the Prime an hour ago, and she's wondering why Grant has yet to report anything. It slightly worries her. She stood intuitively behind the transparent walls of her ship, overlooking planet Terra from thousands of miles in space, and pondering over it, the stakes are building up with each passing day that the Ancestors will return with another wave of wrathful deities hell-bent to wipe the Lilin off the cosmic map. It is terrifying enough that all we know about them is whatever those high heads at Axon are meddling with the 'Horsemen', but that they are far above of what we can match with a thousand years of highly accumulated technology to compete makes it a sheer nightmare. The hope of mankind rests once more at the hands of children reborn from an era of a mythical war that brought the 21st Century in a Dark Age, a time of intellectual darkness and painful recovery. That is not something that should happen again.

"Captain? Grant is on the line." The young fair hair of the suspicious Vice Admiral Aki, stood along the confines of the empty office.

"Put her through." Kaitan's voice was akin to the reaper. Her purple hair sparkles at the lights of Earth's dawn.

"Admiral. I apologize for the prolonged delay." Spoke Asuka, echoing her voice through the command's vast space.

"What's the condition of the TwentyFourth?"

"All well and good, remarkably so considering the time length of his stasis. He had headaches but they seem to have worn off."

"Send me the full report of his condition."

"Done sir."

"Inject the clone with a B9 Enforcer, I will not afford him becoming ill or injured from acclimatization under any circumstances."

"Understood… If I may, can I ask a question Admiral?"

"Do so."

"Will the clone… pilot an Evangelion?" The room was in silence once more, Kaitan never really learned to trust those things, there was always too much suspicion, they were unnatural and alike the enemy, but they were the only thing that worked.

"Yes. Axon seems to be eager for his use."

"With all due respect ma'am, in your expertise, can we trust him? TwentyFourth has been under the hands of Anima for six years, we have no idea what they could have done to him."

"I have sent my worries to the Primal, Aleph. They have insisted."

"…Yes sir."

"Is there anything else?"

"No sir. All is well."

"A frigate will be there in twenty minutes. Head to the following coordinates for extraction. Fleet out." Kaitan removed her sunglasses, and turned around towards her Vice Admiral. "Now…" She sat on a chair that seemingly materialized out of thin air "I want a thorough check at the blackout on Pluto. If I have no feedback in five minutes, get the Sixth Fleet at Hades throat."

* * *

Shinji was looking through a window, and he could not really understand what he was seeing, there was white, snow, and not just a bit, but all over the ground, stretching to the distant horizon, with endless chunks of falling flakes. Even though everything has been his first time, this felt like a whole new level. He could swear he has never seen snow _before_.

"Mari?"

"Yes?" The head of a small drone slowly levitated towards him.

"Where are we exactly?"

"The Japanese Archipelago. Orthrus Outpost. Ground Zero." A holographic map of the world appeared in front of Shinji, the drone points towards his exact position.

"Ground Zero?"

"This was once the battle area of the Genesis War."

"Do we really know so little about it?"

"Evidence and data storage have unfortunately failed to survive the Dark Age; most of what was left is from the buried ruins of this place." Shinji looked at the soothing precipitating snow, strangely appreciating their beauty at whitening the landscape.

"Do you think… Does Asuka hate me somehow?"

"I do not believe she actually resents you Zeta. She was ordered to bring you back from hostile territory of Clavius Base, and has accomplished her duties outstandingly." The boy smiles to himself.

"She seems like a very strong girl, huh?"

"She has endured much." It was beginning to get hard at believing this AI isn't a human being, the more you converse with it.

"But… Something did happen to her right? Something that makes her not like me?"

"Most likely the result of the Goldilocks Engagement."

"What happened?"

"We won, that's what happened." Asuka shows up, pulling Shinji by his arm and stabbed a small painless cylinder through his neck. "Don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong, brat." Shinji felt a rush of cold fluid reaching pass his head and body, he felt instantly refreshed, strangely more energetic and stronger. "That was a very potent vaccine; you're now immune to everything we know of, our higher ups seem to want you not as near death as much as possible." The boy started to rub his neck, as far as he knew he didn't even notice any sort of injection.

"Why?"

"Because if you die, there aren't going to be more of you." Something inside Shinji sparkled.

"…Thank you?"

"Suit up." Asuka hands him a small box for his hand. "We're leaving this place in fifteen minutes."

* * *

It's only been a few hours, but there's something he couldn't quite really put to this girl, guiding in front of him through the snow covered ground, and freezing winds where he felt surprisingly comfortable in. Ideas of being a copy of someone else didn't surprise or affected him as much as it should, Shinji couldn't think of himself as someone high and important, and he suspect that neither would the original, whoever he might have been.

As both children continues their pacing, Shinji began wondering what might have happened millennia ago, the boy paused a few times to marvel at the sky and surroundings, his feet rubbed against hard ground where he noticed it being smoothly flattened surfaced gravel, deducing that he was on a road leading to somewhere. Could his real-self walked through the same path as this once before? How was he like? Was he a confident child and a heroic soldier? Or was he constantly frightened, and feeling pathetic like he is now. The thoughts scared him. It scared him a lot. Mostly at the idea of himself in a war, and how useless he would feel in a fight. Why him anyway?

"Beautiful huh?" Asuka stopped over a vista of a massive crater; they were both standing upon a mountain side, overlooking a vast land of ruin, beseeming of rotting milk. _'It's so desolate. The city seems so lonely.' _Shinji squeezed his eyes a little.

"This is where Genesis happened?" He approached. The girl nodded.

"Do you think we might have lived here somewhere? …Our real selves?" She asks, not turning, just leaning over a rock and staring into the distance. So she **does** wonder about the fact that they're only clones.

"Maybe… I would like to know how things were back then though. I definitely don't want to have a house in a giant hole." They both chuckled. It felt good.

"I never got the chance to visit here before." She mumbles. "We were always… Occupied."

"Who?" Shinji was wondering that exactly, who? But he knew exactly who. "Have you… Met a copy of me?" Realizations mounted and stacked "…Did he die?" Asuka was now completely quiet. She did not twitch; she seemed like an elegant statue with long shining crimson threads floating over her head.

"Yes." She simply said.

"Were you two… Close?" Fear was bubbling up.

"In a way." She turns around "But don't get any ideas. You're still… A copy." Something inside Shinji cracked. There was no chance to have a simple nice relationship with this girl, a walking reminder of what she lost, and what she'll never gain back as to approach him would feel like a betrayal to someone she knew. Unfair isn't it? "You know what's scary?" Shinji kept listening "When I was stranded here… I managed to steal intel that Axon was attempting to create duplicates from him, when we all thought he was the last one. Hell… Maybe they've already done it. Maybe there are others like me as well, walking around in bases somewhere, thinking that they're unique." The girl looked away "I had to deal with that for a long time, to accept humility. That you're not special… That you're just…" The girl mimes her hand as a ventriloquist "One of their puppets." A pause visited. "For eight years, I was alone… And somehow a mission was briefed to me, saying that we had to recuperate three Marduk stasis pods of clones on Europa. Graeca-TwentyThird was too damaged to be revived, he died on the attempt. Ex-TwentySecond was the sole success. That was him. Zeta-TwentyFourth was stolen." Asuka turned to Shinji, sighed heavily before continuing. "One week ago I was told that that the TwentyFourth was located on an Anima base not far from here." She quickly pointed towards the east on her right. "So I got you out, as cleanly as I could."

"Can I… Thank you for that?" The boy attempted to smile a little, whatever help that would do.

"Don't. It was duty. I would have thrown you into the pit if they told me to." She spoke turbulently. Shinji could had believed it, but he felt skeptical.

"…Something tells me you wouldn't have done that."

"And why wouldn't I?"

"Because you don't want to be a doll."

A burst of lighting crashed down upon them as the roar from one of Admiral Kaitan's frigate comes thundering from the sky, signaling to the land that the ark for the children has arrived.

* * *

Flickering and roars of chatter were booming throughout the Command Center beyond Neptune, an event they're witnessing was indecipherable to them, the Wall is composed of a series of drones that use force fields to surround the Sol System in an encased ball, billions built since the quarantine initiation of the Outer War four hundred years ago. The only weak point to it is the Gate, held by the Cerberus Station located on Pluto. Now, these drones are tattering down faster than anyone could have ever imagined, and even though they've quadrupled its strength since the breakthrough of 3002, it seems nothing is about to stop this new force behind an army of Far Ancestral Race.

"Where is our situation now?" Asks the General in charge of the Cerberus Station, hopeful of gospel with a slight wish that what they're seeing is only one massive glitch.

"Nothing, sensors have decreased from 09 to 04 in five hours and spreading faster, the boys are dropping like flies. It's like millions of battering rams are out there! The defense branch has **got **to relieve the pressure as soon as possible!" An officer reported. The General attempts to initiate a link with his scanner.

"What's happening on the other end?" He asks another.

"It's a total void sir. They're blocking all of our abilities to scan them. As far as we can tell, there could be hundreds… Hundreds of millions." Whoever heard that quivered.

"…How much time do we have?"

"Two hours... Tops." The General gulped, this is so far beyond what the worst-scenario could be, they were not expecting to have nine barriers of protection crumbling in less than a day, or much less without the warning of seven beacons situated light years apart. Such is the price of hubris, he supposed. The man continued to stay seated; he opened a channel for him to broadcast station wide.

"Soldiers, gentlemen… friends, we have arrived at the moment of truth. Hannibal is at the gates. Our communication to headquarters has been compromised. We do not know how. If the enemy breaches this Wall our planets will be taken utterly off guard. A distress call has been sent but at this point, as far as we can tell there might not be any assistance from Gaia..." Thousands of combatants and personnel listened attentively, the general raised his voice. "However I say that we should let them come… In approximately ninety minutes the Gate will be opened to allow a bottleneck for our enemies passing through. If these things want to get to our home worlds, they'll be facing the might of our firepower firsthand. Show them what it means to fight for something to protect… Godspeed. Hades out."

* * *

Asuka is perplexed, on board an Axon frigate she is feeling like being treated as a suspicious prisoner all of a sudden, is this what you get for being one of the most important soldier on Sol? In just sixteen minutes she has been under fourteen different scans, three repeated blood test and one inappropriate body search by a droid who must definitely be a pervert. '_Body search? Really? Standards have really lowered when I was gone._' She guesses that she shouldn't complain considering her attempts at a long list of past attempts at insubordinations, although she still feels moody. After stepping out a hallway of annoying security checks, she spotted Shinji in less than a happy state. It would seem that they didn't give him much respect on his end either.

"Hi…" He simply said greeting her awkwardly as Asuka simply ignored him back. She's feeling too many emotions stirring inside her whenever she looks at his face. She kept walking and followed an AI that led them to the bridge, and she can tell that the crew of this vessel is acting more serious than she has ever seen on any warship anywhere. _'Something big is going on.'_

Neither Shinji nor Asuka spoke to one another along the way, Shinji seem to only be wondering of how alien everything feels to him, while Asuka is yet pondering on her own conflicts, and the peculiarities scuttling around her chest.

Eventually the doors to the captain's bridge opens, the children were surrounded by lines of monitors, officers speaking, barking orders and receiving them as dozens of holograms switched back and forth on multiple colors. All of this combined felt very disorientating.

"Captain Grant! It's an honor to have you back on the Thule." Spoke the main figure at the central chair, surrounded by others, the voice coming from him sounded oddly familiar to Shinji, as well as his appearance, however much he could see it, but he could not quite put who he is. "…As well as yourself, Commander Ikari." The captain pointed to Shinji, he lifted his head up and felt somewhat surprised. He couldn't guess that he had any sort of military rank. A Commander?

"What's going on around here?" Asks Asuka, eyeing machines and people moving about.

"Kaitan just sent word to Axon. She wants the Eleven Fleets mobilized."

"All of them?" Asuka raised both her eyebrows; such an execution has never been given to all Hosts before in recent history.

"Pluto went dark four hours ago, and only ten minutes earlier did we picked their distress signal. Something is besieging the Wall, and breaking onto it fast."

"…Ancestors." She muttered to herself. The captain of the Thule nods.

"Perhaps." There was now a huge sense of dread, and passion boiling inside the redhead, her fist was clenching hard, where it draws even Shinji to see it. "Also, I was just authorized to pass you an old friend. The Langley has been reinstated to your command. We'll be docking to let you board your ship in ten minutes." The man smiled warmly, Asuka was no longer astonished at anything; it was like she knew exactly what he was going to say and what's going to happen, especially what she should do now.

"Thank you, Kor." She simply nodded her head as appreciation. "I'll be at the doors."

"Welcome back to the fleet, Grant." It was just now that Shinji realized who the man in front of him was, _Ryoji Kaji_. Asuka swung around, grabbed Shinji's arm and both rushed out of the bridge before the boy could point or mention anything.

* * *

"So… You're a captain of a ship?" Inquisitively questioned Shinji, standing on the other side of a small room next to the exit gate that will transfer them to the next ship, with Asuka holding her arms in solemn, she was thinking, and quite strictly at something. He thought of mentioning Kaji, but perhaps it was a bad idea to open your mouth when she's like that in the first place.

"It's a carrier, built specifically to hold the Triad. My first officer was usually in charge of her." For some reason, now she seems relaxed. "I would get too busy making tests and boosting my synchronizations."

"How long since you were on it?"

"Ever since I landed on Earth …Three years now."

"That was when-"

"I'm not going to talk about that. And especially _him_." The door that connected a gangway to the Thule and Langley opened, Asuka walks into it, the corridor were filled with lights that shined her entire figure in front of Shinji, she turned back "All you need to know is that you're a ghost to me. But you're right… I'm not a mannequin to be moved around by superiors glued to their chairs. So from here on **I'm** making the decisions." Shinji could spot fire in those blue eyes, he could see a flame rising to move mountains and die trying.

"…Will you need me?" He turned his gaze down. Asuka's head lowered.

"To be honest? …No. I don't want you. And I don't want you on my ship. But I know how it's like to be useless, and I don't want you to feel that way." Then she started smiling slightly, and with the lights in radiance behind, Shinji felt like looking at an angel "You can come with me if you like. I definitely can't turn away a fellow pilot." This was a girl that will tempt however she can to distance herself away from him when he gets too close for comfort, she already tried accepting someone, and he died, perhaps she feels like it might happen again, and she will not want to be too close to him if it does. But Shinji will prove this girl wrong, he will not die, because he's the last, and he needs questions answered. He could feel voices calling out to him; things that he knows will continue to scare him half to death. But isn't that a battle worthy of fighting?

How could you refuse that?

* * *

**つづく**


	3. Part II: Rebirth

**Part II**

**Rebirth**

Roku felt highly uncomfortable having someone else coming to replace him. He was in charge of the Langley ever since he heard of the legendary victory of the Goldilocks when he was nothing but a disappointment on Axon's mighty backside, however they still trusted him enough to take care of a ship that held the finest weapons of mankind's arsenal. For the first time he was proud, he was useful and that meant a lot to him. Good things never seem to last, and things are changing, in a few minutes he will step down his commandeer rank, return to HQ, and the room where he will mull over on how deplorable his situation is. Unless he could ask the new captain if he's allowed to become her first officer of course. _'Who am I kidding, she'll probably kick me out the moment she realizes I'm just a kid.' _This was true, Roku is underdeveloped, with a physique that barely held a look of a sixteen year old, his awkwardly cheery attitude could annoy most officers in the navy, and people such as him aren't well liked for holding too much authority over older and far more competent 'serious' people. He barely just got the trust of the people around this ship. Also, to make matters worse, he's a clone, barely four to five years old even.

He could try to sway the captain by giving her impressive academic results he has achieved before leading over the Langley; there have been plenty of young high achievers in Axon's military history before. The ship was undeniably well guarded when his predecessor fell into the MIA list. And through the course of him being here, he has become attached, he would have continued to take all of its responsibilities should he have been given more time. He should have a chance to stay, right?

"Logged, Captain Aleph Grant is aboard. Jupiter stands relieved." That was the line he was dreading to hear by his fellow AI Kozu, but he simply announced the minute of courage.

"Alright, Roku, you can do this. She's not going to bite." The boy took a deep breath and gave a sigh; he stood in front of the carrier's door that the captain will come out to greet him and where he could hopefully ask for reassignment on the Langley. _'God I hope she won't make me a janitor or something… Quiet… Just stay calm.'_

"Sir? Your heart rate is expressing abnormal levels of stress and anxiety for the past sixty minutes. I advise an alleviation hour with a _chambermaid_." The small drone sympathetically floated over Roku.

"I don't have time for that Kozu. I'm in the middle of welcoming back our captain. And I need to get busy once I meet her." The boy agitated a bit. "…What's taking her so long? Have I got all the stripes on my shoulder?"

"Sir, you look stunning. Be still, and take deep breaths. She'll be here in seven seconds." He says calmly.

"Okay!" Deep breath. "Deep breath. Of course." Another deep breath, simultaneously just as he exhaled the private gate opened in front of him, Roku immediately raises his hand to his forehead and straightens his legs for greeting.

"Captain Grant! Welcome back aboard the Axon Langley, madam. I humbly request reassignment as your substitute First Officer." Everything froze when the three persons gradually stared at each other. Asuka was frozen to see Roku, an identical copy of Shinji himself. Shinji was frozen looking at Roku, someone who seemed to be a twin of himself. And Roku was shocked at seeing that his captain, the heroine of the Goldilocks, was not an adult woman, and that she is followed by a copy of him that must definitely be here to replace him.

"Wa-" Asuka was at a complete loss.

"I…" Shinji felt like his heart was smashed and betrayed into oblivion, experiencing a wave of shock that everything since he was awakened to the world was a lie.

"Ah…" Roku cleared his throat, his own chest feeling deeply unwell. He sucked it up, and straightens a smile "I welcome our… lovely **young** captain back to the Langley along with my substitute beside her as well." The boy reached a hand and politely grabbed Shinji's, shattering all his hopes of hallucination. "Congratulations on receiving my… Job, friend, you're a very lucky… 'Me' it seems." It was the most awkward handshake of the century. '_The captain is an adolescent? Three years and I was never apprised!?'_

"…Who are you?" There was no chillier voice than the question that came out of Asuka's throat.

"Former Commodore Roku, ma'am! Clone-code Jupiter." The boy gave Asuka another salute "I was assigned to charge over your ship for safekeeping while you were missing in action following the Goldilocks Engagement."

"…I see" The redhead replied, feeling immensely uncomfortable. Shinji felt worse.

"And you must be one of my copies? I was never told Axon could or would create a second version of me. I assumed that it is illegal, shouldn't I have to be KIA before they're allowed a production?" Roku tried his best to keep his composure, even though deep inside he wished he could punch the clone's guts a few times. And yell on a phone of how upset he is at the people who made him.

"Incorrect sir. Genetic scanning reveals inequality. He is not a fellow clone." AI Kozu unexpectedly intervened. Shinji and Asuka were still recovering from the encounter.

"He isn't? But we look alike don't we?"

"Both of your DNA strands do not coincide, the two of you are not exact duplicates."

"And how would you know that?" The boy rolled his eyes dully.

"We are docked with the Thule, Captain Kor allowed myself access to his data caches. I have successfully mapped Zeta's genome."

"Zeta? Him?" Roku turned to Shinji.

"This pattern of similarities is a common theme throughout pregnancy tests of all Lilin wide populace in Sol, mostly utilized to find missing or alternate paternal individuals."

"Which means-" Says Roku, guessing. Shinji and Asuka nearly got it.

"You are a clone of his father." All composure from Roku is sapped instantly. "The original's father." Asuka drew her watch on her wrist to her mouth. She commanded her own AI in four words.

"…Mari? Get me Wunder."

* * *

"You know damn well what I want to know, admiral, because I will not buy for a **second** that the boy that took over my ship was the daddy of the Third Child!" Asuka was bursting her voice in private against the monitor in her cabin, Kaitan's face remained unshaken.

"There's a lot that you are unaware about Aleph, believe it or not things are classified from you, this is just one of them and it's the truth. Jupiter is a clone of Gendo Ikari."

"How were you even able to get a sample from such a person? Hasn't the Dark Age taught us that we cannot find or know squat on ninety percent of whatever went down in the Genesis War? You really want me to believe that you were able to just stumble on a good sack of fresh blood that was left in some freezer on Ground Zero?"

"He was no everyday father, captain. He was the commander that led the Children in the war." Asuka crossed her arms, still more than suspicious.

"Then tell me why he was not cloned until five years ago. How is he as young as us?"

"His codes were stashed alongside Shinji's copies when you retrieved them in 99, and because he was considered the best candidate to replace the TwentySecond." Storms of fury were brewing inside the redhead, she wanted the yell and scream at the fact that children are being treated like mass products. "The idea failed, Aleph. He was unable to synchronize with any unit, and all attempts to fool the Evas that he's a Marduk chosen were deadends. Since we couldn't just dispose him, we gave him your ship after you disappeared."

"You **swear** to me Kaitan… You **SWEAR** to me that there are **NO** other clones of **Shinji **or **ME**." Kaitan stared directly for a long few seconds and answered the wrathful girl on the screen.

"There is none other. I swear." Asuka slowly bowed her head down, clasping her hands together and sat back to contemplate with herself. "I've ordered your crew to prep the Evas, Captain. Report to the Hosts in sixteen minutes." The monitor shut down, and the cabin wrapped itself to suppression. Did Asuka believe her? Not really, it didn't matter anyway.

* * *

"I advise to stop trusting her with assignments that would endanger the war, Admiral." Aki sat on the other side of the desk as the purple head woman faced the large window into cosmos, after being disrespected to a delinquent inferior officer a few seconds back, Kaitan held her drink. To the fleet general's disappointment, the window in front of her darkens into a black screen as various information of dump boxes pop up with complex mathematical equations and biological readouts on Horsemen Units. "You and I both know she has proven to be increasingly contumacious and unstable. Her Ego Barrier is standing at 4.9% since Ex's Unit-1 failed to meet our... Expectations. Plus, with various drawbacks of-" The Admiral, weary of hearing it all again, interrupts her friend's dialogue.

"I'm aware of the drawbacks Aki. The directors don't seem to wish gambling with her skills any longer. The Committee have created a contingent replacement." With a wave of the Admiral's hand, the screen quickly changed to files of a different set of clones that no one has ever seen before, but knows of quite well, it seems to be in rapid production. Vice-Admiral Aki was taken aback to this for a second, before regaining her balance.

"You are serious for her, aren't you?"

"...When was I never?" Images of a new pilot marked the creation of the next artificial human in the series.

* * *

Shinji stood inside the labeled Z24 hangar, where he beheld in front of him the great humanoid statue of a blue and silver Evangelion dubbed Mikael, surrounded by an aura where he could swear it was humming to him. He oddly felt like home, as if he was just marveling a tool that he has been accustomed to for so long. Two minutes earlier he inserted himself into a suit that felt all too familiar once again, he was about to embark on a fight that he has always fought, and yet about to engage in for the very first time. He was still terrified, even angry, angry at the suspicious clone of this 'father' that is constantly giving him the look, and Shinji returned one of his own. He didn't believe it could actually be true. It has to be a lie to cover something up. Right?

"Hey, I've been informed that we're now converging with the Second Fleet. We'll be taking the jump to Pluto and the Evas will estimate to deploy in thirty minutes…" This took Shinji by surprise as Roku handed his hand to him again. "I just want to say… good luck. I'll be in touch through your channel if you need anything."

"Thanks." He smiles, and willingly accepted the handshake. It was odd to think that this boy is someone **from **his father, while he had to remind himself that they're not the same people. _'Why am I angry anyway? I don't __**have **__a father.' _And as Shinji entered the elevator and turned around to eye back at the Commodore quietly, Jupiter returned him a look, one that triggered the boy a memory that was fished right out of the ocean of blissfulness nothing.

'_Dad? Why did you sent for me?'_

'_I think the reason has already been made obvious.'_

'_You expect me to just get into this thing and fight? Is that it?'_

'_Correct.'_

'_Why are you doing this!? You never wanted me before! Why now!?'_

'_It is impossible for anyone else.'_

'_It just won't work! I am telling you __**there's no way**__!'_

Roku smiled and waved warmly for luck as Shinji ascends up above into the echoing lights.

* * *

Asuka gladly gave Jupiter liability over the Langley, she knows that she would not be able to just sit on the bridge and give everyone tactical maneuverings. Her place is in the army, at the midst of its battlefield, it is the world where she always belonged and will continue to be. Perhaps it'll even become her final resting place.

The girl continued to keep thinking inside her entry plug, enjoying the feeling of having being returned into her Eva once more, mostly pondering of the fact that she's going to commit the greatest violation in her entire life of military duty. How and why are yet to be seen. She didn't wait for Shinji to get onto his; the idiot can handle his Eva on his own. She knows she shouldn't trust him, she doesn't truly know how different he could be from Ex, and what could Anima might have done to him, or what time bomb they've have installed in his mind. But this was no longer the time for suspicions, she had to trust him if she want to survive this little scheme, and she definitely needs him on her sight should he actually be up to no good. Right now, she should simply be able to reach him at the touch of a button once he's in his cockpit, he'll practically look like he's sitting right next to her. The girl grins to herself eagerly in the dark, she has reviewed and contacted hundreds of individuals since she's been sitting here, she is predicting what the enemy is pulling off and Asuka will know exactly where to strike. The day of glory is nigh and she couldn't feel more excited to get back in the game.

Shinji was finally inside somewhere he could appreciate. The long cylinder like chamber that houses the controls of a being that is under his direct command felt as if he has done it countless times. Ever since he awoke, it was only now that he actually felt truly calm, there was no sense of fear, worries, only peace, and he could scent it. He could hear the heartbeat of the Evangelion itself if he should dream deep enough and discover the soul hidden inside, welcoming him.

A soul? What soul? What is he talking about? He doesn't know how this thing works; his entire life span hasn't even passed half a day. How can he know and feel so much? Has he been here before? Has he really done this? Or is it all a product of artificial instincts?

"Ikari." Shinji opened his eyes, and looked around. There was only shadows and the dim darkness illuminated by fluorescence.

"Hello?" He said something, he knows he heard it; it was practically right on his ear. "Is someone here?" The entire room was barely ten meters long and three meters wide, he would have immediately noticed if someone was in this place when he entered. But he could sense _her_, she was _here_, he was sure of it. "…Hello?" He asks again. No response. And the warmth was gone.

Suddenly light burst apart, all colors of the universe felt like it just passed through the pilot as torrent of fresh air rushed into his nostrils. Air? This felt wrong, like something is missing. There shouldn't be air.

"Hey, idiot." Spoke the redhead right next to him.

"Asuka? What… What are you doing here?"

"I'm not here. This is an open channel for us to comm. I'm inside Unit-02." Shinji's eyelids flickered and he blinked. "Listen carefully, because I only want to say this once. The attack on Hades is a diversion. Our ship won't be going anywhere." She paused as the boy turned to think to himself.

"Okay?" He didn't have anything to say.

"I **want** an opinion. Give me a strategic debate; prove to me that your mental capabilities are excellent."

"I eh… I think that's… A very interesting conclusion?" The boy nudges his lips to the side of his cheek. The girl let out an awful sigh.

"I knew you had the brain of a walnut." She groaned and mumbled, chiseling away some pride on Shinji. "Just listen then. I've ordered Roku to keep the carrier as the last ship for warp, when the rest of the fleet is gone we will position ourselves on these coordinates." Asuka opened up a hologram that mapped the Sol System; she zoomed in and revealed the location, somewhere around the orbit of Mars.

"How do you know that they're going to be there?"

"Because they did the same thing three years ago… It's how they were able to flank us from behind. No one managed to figure this out or confirm it soon enough, they thought they were stealthily cloaked bogeys." She sniggered "Their heads would meddle too egoistically for their stupid censors, and they place too much faith that those things could contain any wave that would try to pass the Wall." Asuka now lowered her head. "This is why I'm not letting glued generals order me around anymore."

"But, wouldn't a superior officer have already thought about this? You can't be the only one who's suspicious or have found out."

"Of course I wasn't, stupid! Kaitan knew this before I did! She should be as frustrated as I am if I'm in her shoes. But the Admiral is under Axon's hierarchy, and the word of the Primal is absolute. Once their command is passed down you are forced to obey them or face death." Asuka smirked "…But they're not going to dare kill me, clones or not, I'm too important to them. I'll be the one to prove that tyrant of theirs wrong."

"And you think… the Admiral wants you to disobey her?"

"I think that's exactly what she wants me to do. Right now Kaitan is definitely finding someone else to replace me in case I fail to live up to my standards." Shinji's scratched his hair a bit and felt glad that he's not some sort of Commander. Oh wait.

"Wouldn't we be better off with a fleet's assistance? Can we really take these things on our own?" Shinji felt uncomfortable fighting with no back.

"Evangelions are dangerous to warships, especially an entire group of them; we cause too much mayhem once we fight. Ex learned that the hard way." Asuka turned her attention momentarily to a few lights on her side; she clicked a button on one of her GUIs "Jupiter?" A full body image of Roku appeared in front of them, he had one hand in his pocket, the other on his back and his uniform was unbuttoned. Shinji has a hard time to believe he was not seeing a miniature human in front of him.

"Captain?"

"Set a trajectory for Deimos space, you know where you'll need to punch when we reach to time zero."

"Of course Captain." With that, Roku disappeared. Asuka chuckled; Shinji rolled his eyes back to her.

"But to be fair… Ex was always an idiot."

* * *

Vice-Admiral Aki watched over the Heavenly Hosts and wondered about being present at a new pivotal moment in the history of mankind, the union of all Lilin's firepower gathered to a singular zone, hundreds of thousands of ships docking and leaving their ports, arming themselves against the fearsome invaders that have destroyed all human reaches that have tiresomely expanded into deep space. It is a shame indeed to see all of this squandered however, to know that these fleets are being part of a simple diversion process to supplement the belief that the Ancestors are gaining the upper hand while they're plucking a wormhole as soon as the Trimurti worlds become defenseless. Little would they know that the Langley carrier will be in there waiting for them to catch on their own trap, or at least that is what Kaitan's hoping Aleph would do.

The fate of the Lilin hangs once more into the hands of soldiers from the shrouded First War against Ancestral beings, and right now they trust them blindly. The first victory over the Goldilocks was but a test on us, these things wanted to poke and see what bit and even though we've won, we didn't bit hard enough. The Ancestors won't be scared of us, they will come, and they will annihilate the race that have birthed out of the world of the Two Fruits. They see us as an abominable threat, a serious menace to the balance of the cosmos, and they are coming to stop the life form that could potentially unite Life and Knowledge, a metamorphism for a thoroughly omnipotent being.

This is a generally recognized elucidation to the Axon's forces, which is why it is utter nonsense of course, the actual truth is far, far worse. The blonde girl sniggered to herself as she completed the overseeing of dreadnoughts now disconnecting their bridge with Kaitan's flagship, and the Trimurti's ship of the line. She switches on her earpiece and echoed her voice to all ships in range.

"This is Vice-Admiral Aki speaking; the countdown has concluded, we have officially reached the zeroth. Move out."

* * *

"Have you… ever done that?" Blood was pouring into Shinji's cheeks now; he could feel himself tense and ridiculous for even talking about this. Half of his head was yelling on how stupid he is to actually push the subject further, the other half just wanted him to kill himself.

"No. We never did." Asuka hanged her arms at the back of her head and only stared at the spatial void, it's been ten minutes, the Langley is now in Deimos space and their Evangelions have reached the intended location. All they need to do now is await the Langley to pick up a break in the space-time field. "We actually never kissed believe it or not. I've only known him for a couple of years, and back then my Ego was way higher than what it fell to now. Kaitan wanted us to live with her so that she could keep us tight in her pockets… And since clones don't age we really had all the time in the universe to know each other. But eventually we did get closer… I thought I should save everything for a party after the battle." She grinned to herself. Why is she even talking about Shinji to a clone of him? Is she really that desperate to want him back? This one is not the boy she knew. The one she cared was Ex, and he died to save her. But he would understand won't he? What's so difficult about this? She has mourned him enough. Isn't it time to move on?

"I don't want to be his replacement you know." He said. Asuka's eyes slowly looked toward him. He was getting tenser and red. "If… Eh… If ah…" The more Shinji stuttered the more he felt like dooming himself further and further "If you're interested in me… Then I would rather have you like me for who I am." That was stupid. Obvious. Cliché. Unoriginal and a pure rip-off from the words of mouths that has spoken them countless times in the serenades of history, but it was innocently true, Shinji, this version of him at least, would not accept Asuka if all she sees in him was the boy she lost. Asuka can't help but at least respect that he dared saying that to her face, she raised an eyebrow in response and smiled, amused of whatever she just heard.

"I know. I'll think about it." Asuka shut her eyes again, she was really pleased _'…It's only a matter of whether I should'_. Shinji simply sighed in slight shame but glad that it didn't ended on a worse note, right now he only felt like having dodged a cannonball. All in all it's a success, considering that she was someone who couldn't really stand him. "But… It's not unlikely that I'd give you a chance, _Shinji_…" The clone stared at the girl who's smiling at him contently, butterflies flew into him, and he knew, through all the lives he could have experienced, he was certain that he was never happier.

* * *

The eyes of First Officer Roku were carefully monitoring the readings on the main deck atop what is likely the most powerful ship of the Eleven Fleets, with detection systems covering thousands of miles around the two Eva Units floating in space. He has been hoping furiously that the predictions of his captain are correct, or this will surely be the last time he'll ever be in a mission, or worse, dead. Not that he ever minded death; he expected it ever since he realized how lost he felt when Axon rejected him from two years of severe training exercises, and learning at graduation that he was 'incompatible'. On that day, to him it did felt like the end, his entire existence crumbled from failing to meet expectation, wouldn't you feel attached when you finally gained a sense of responsibility? Roku was afraid that it would have been taken away from him and returning to the square one of having nothing to be.

"Sir, we have detected Grant's anomaly." Kozu's voice alerted back the seated Commander. He was pleased that instincts on his new Captain were right; both of Roku's hands knot together and started resting on his grimace face.

"So… It seems I'll be keeping my job after all, professor." But even now the officer knew that a turn for the worst was only seconds away.

* * *

"Jupiter? We're seeing something." There was movement, and Asuka could feel presences around her for a while now, but she could never be truly sure until Shinji alerted the same as well.

"Kozu has detected a reading captain." The voice answered in front of them.

"What are the probabilities for Ancestral signals?" Asuka continued checking her measurements.

"Sir… The anomaly matches no known signatures; it is unlike anything we've seen. The pattern is **Blue**."

"Blue?" The girl now furiously tapped her GUIs and attempting to figure the nonsense out. "…What do you mean Blue?"

"Ikari." Shinji only focused his eyes on a single position, there was a black massive dot in front of him, and he was paralyzed by its call. The pale white face of a girl he once knew and treasured. _'Her… It's her.' _"Ikari." When existence fell to all silence she spoke. The last of the Ikari series was transfixed at the great being arising out of the nothingness. Everything slowed down; the hands of Lilith were all he needed. He sat helplessly inside his Eva, watching the massive feminine body smiling for him as the giant embraces Shinji's unit in a warm holding. "Ikari."

"Sh… Shinji! I can't move my Eva! …SHI…N…J…I…!" It did not matter anymore; no amount of cry would awake him now. He will experience the greatest of happiness. He did not need anyone if he simply surrendered.

"_In return for her soul, I'll grant you__… everything._" A voice of Shinji spoke to him, and he was satisfied, he returned a smile to her for approval, and like a mother beside her laying child, he is gently cradled to sleep. The air disappeared, LCL flooded his lungs and he was submerged back into that pool. The pool of infinity.

* * *

"Shinji..." The voice spoke.

"Shinji…" She repeated.

"Shinji…" She muttered. "Ayanami…" She thought.

"Rei…" The voice was firm and determined.

"Rei..." She was wondering and scouring.

"Rei…" She wanted him to know, to remember. "Ikari…" That was his name, wasn't it?

"No." It was incorrect.

"**Rei.**" She'll correct it. "**Ayanami**."

* * *

Shinji Ikari awoke as if his heart was beating at a hundred miles an hour, a severe feeling of having been 'drilled into your skull' started to take a toll, he covered his head with his hands and tried to remember anything that just happened. Blank. Nothing. He slammed the back of his back down the bed and turned around to a figure sitting beside him. He began to breathe rapidly as the girl stared at him. Saying nothing.

"As… Asuka?" The redhead watched him curiously, as she examined him.

"How are you feeling?" She said, with a coerce voice as if it was for the first in her life where she actually said something.

"What happened?" He hates that he could not remember, he hates that his mind and the world loves to play tricks at him, he hates that what happened might have been far graver than they seem to be. Then, a sudden suspicion struck, and dread engulfed him, supplementing the boy's anguish. He lifted his back, with his eyes ablaze with thoughts; he directed his senses towards the girl. "What's… What is your name? Your clone-code…" The redhead nudges her head a little and answered.

"Bet. I'm BeTwo." Shinji turned away and shut his eyes. His arms and hands now gradually wrapped around his head and sank into his neck.

He groans, hissed and finally screamed with sheer wrath.

* * *

"Aki has confirmed that Ayanami is in cryo for quarantine…" In the office of Wunder, Kaitan watches Asuka sitting on the other chair in front of her, with her spacious office illuminated by the sun slowly rising through the black sky of the universe. "So I was wrong, your scheme paid off. Do you want to keep doing this, Asuka?" The girl twitched a little bit as she could feel the sting on her left eye, now covered with a new mechanic patch and tinkering, softly glowing with blue. It was a pain to keep it hidden for so long. "Weren't you pained from the loss of TwentySecond?"

"Did you really think I would care about a copy?" She icily stated. Sighing a bit. "Well… now at least I can take a small break. It'll be very interesting to see how he'll… deal with another me. Don't pull another Roku again, I can only take up so much shock."

"You did made me do an otiose swear, and then you've asked me to break it for no reason. The way I see it we're even." Kaitan raised her favorite glass of liquor and raised it to an honor of her guest. "Congratulation on your promotion by the way, Axon was quite impressed."

"There's a difference between stashing a clone and making a new one …And thanks Admiral." The redhead pilot placed her face onto the sun.

"You're welcome… I could be guilty for keeping Jupiter a secret from you, but what of **you**? Don't you feel guilty for treating Zeta like… One of the many puppets?" The Admiral relaxed herself back on her seat.

"The real him tried to kill me twice Misato. So no…" The pilot paused, Kaitan raised an eyebrow, she was never used to that nickname "I feel sick maybe, hypocritical as well, but other than that? No." Asuka did not show a hint of being emotional or if whatever she just said was true. Memories are like ramblings to her ears, she could already see it all, the past and the pain, and how much she would like to amend for everything, but now it's not the time for that, she needs to be patient. Watch how it'll all turn out.

"…As dirty as all of it is, I definitely want to see where this goes." Kaitan finally gulped her whole glass, remembering the sobbing she picked after the Goldilocks Engagement, she couldn't believe that it's just now that she realized Asuka did not cry loss for Ex. She cried for guilt.

"Disgusting isn't it?"

* * *

**終劇**


End file.
